Hurt Valley: By Myself on Mars
For years, Brian Collins lived a quiet double life: By day, he worked as a science teacher at a school in Los Angeles, by night, he was a musician, writing and recording in his apartment whenever his free time allowed for it. And, over the last several years, he occasionally would share some of those songs with friends. One of those friends, session musician Hunter Perrin—who’s played with John Fogerty and Billy Gibbons—encouraged him to send his songs out to labels. So the cold pitches began—and Jeremy Earl, of the indie psych-rock band Woods, answered the call. Now, Collins’ life is about to be a lot less quiet. His debut album, Glacial Pace, released under the moniker Hurt Valley, arrived late last year on Earl’s Woodsist label. It’s a collection of 10 indie-meets-country rock numbers, loosely inspired by a trip he took to Death Valley several years ago. But its really about relationships and their cost, as well as his healthy obsession with the past. “It’s just like another planet, like being on Mars,” he says of that fateful trip. “All of the songs go back to thinking about relationships and life stuff. Those things all tie together. I moved out here by myself, without knowing anyone in Los Angeles. A lot of the songs are about the past.” Standout numbers include the lo-fi, woozy “Apartment Houses” and “Bothers,” where Collins bitingly sings, “Who will finally take the bait and start looking for you/ When you don’t communicate in any way.” Born and raised in Washington, D.C. and the Northern Virginia suburbs, Collins came of age in the DIY punk and hardcore scenes, citing Fugazi as an early influence. He went to college in Ohio and spent most of the 2000s “following a girlfriend” around, from Boston to North Carolina. They eventually split and Collins moved to California, showing up alone with very little. That’s when his Hurt Valley project was truly born. And, more than a decade later, the world is getting a proper taste—but he’s adamant that nothing’s rushed. “My songwriting has become a slower process,” he says. “It’s hard to have a music studio and an apartment in Los Angeles.”
